We were proud to support the West Ham Utd Player Awards again this year, sponsoring the ‘Best Individual Performance of the Season’, which went to Michail Antonio for his great all round performance in the FA Premier League 1-0 win over Spurs (see above).

All our guests said they had a fantastic night at the club’s Player Awards, which was held at the lavish Hilton on Park Lane. After a brilliant season, there was a vibrant and jubilant atmosphere in the room as we celebrated the team’s and individual player achievements.

The evening was hosted by Sky Sports F1 lead commentator and lifelong hammers fan, David Croft. The irrepressible auctioneer Jonny Gould put in an indefatigable performance playing bidders off against each other to extract the maximum cash for the benefit of the West Ham Academy.

It was great to chat to 1966 World Cup ‘hatrick’ hero Geoff Hurst and see him pick up his 2016 Lifetime Achievement Award

Geoff Hurst with his Lifetime Achievement Award

The PRTC guests

Dimitri (‘We’ve Got’) Payet cleaned up by taking five awards and was named ‘Hammer of the year’

A word from ‘happy’ captain Mark

On a personal level, it was great to meet Slaven and many of the players and say ‘THANK YOU!’ for a great season – they all obliged with a selfie…here are a few of them!

Oh what a night…6th of May in 2015! Our guests all had a fantastic time at the West Ham Player Awards dinner in the convivial surroundings of the London Hilton on Park Lane Hotel. We were here to celebrate a good season’s work and see the players receive their awards. And there was lots of wonderful video footage to admire – I shall never tire of seeing Adrian rip his gloves off before converting his penalty to clinch an FA cup win against Everton!

The event was wonderfully hosted by Ben Shephard. The auctioneer, Jonny Gould had our table in stitches as he managed to insult the auction bidders, cajoling them into parting with large amounts of cash. I managed to make a successful bid for ‘Matchday announcer for the day’ at Upton Park – that should be great fun!

The PRTC table at the awards

Cheikhou Kouyaté and Diafra Sakho were delightful guests on our table. They were both affable and friendly and we all had lots to talk about (some of it was done in French!). Interesting to quiz Diafra on his strongest defensive opponents this year!!

We were proud sponsors of the ‘Best Individual Performance’ of the year – there were so many contenders who had put in ‘great shifts’ – but the winner was one of our ‘table guests’ Cheikhou for his all-round display against Manchester United which included a ‘wonderfully skilled’ goal.

Waiting to present Best Individual Performance Award to Cheikhou

Presenting the Award to Cheikhou

The official West Ham Utd photo of me presenting the award to Cheiko

Diafra Sakho inevitably won the “Top Goalscorer’ of the season award.

Diafra Sakho…top goalscorer in 2014/15

There were waves of sad emotion as the late Dylan Tombides award was presented to Reece Oxford by Dylan’s mum. He will always be remembered with affection.

Admiration swept the room as the legendary Martin Peters MBE came up to receive ‘The Lifetime Achievement Award’ to a standing ovation – what a shining role model of a footballer he is. Loved his impromptu speech (as he had not planned to speak) – which ended with a great line “If you don’t support West Ham, then don’t come!”

Martin Peter’s says a few words…

Ben Shephard told us that the votes for The ‘Hammer Of The Year’ were extremely close this year…but the winner was Aaron Cresswell. He has been consistently superb all season.

Aaron Cresswell coming up to receive his ‘Hammer Of The Year’ Award

I shall cherish the memories of this evening forever..West Ham is a great family club! Thanks to everyone involved at the club for putting together a slick and entertaining event.
Here are some other random photos…

I was very lucky to have been awarded second place prize at the West Ham Utd Player Awards dinner in May (see previous post). The prize was being guest of West Ham’s joint chairmen for the pre-season friendly vs UC Sampdoria (and I could also bring along my partner, Patricia and my brother Ian and his son – Michael (both lifelong Hammers fans).

As part of the Prize, I got to choose the man of the match and present the award. I choose one of our most reliable players – Mark Noble – who was a pivotal part of our display. Peter Rayney Tax Consulting Ltd was also featured on the screen as the Match Day sponsor.

We thoroughly appreciated the kind hospitality shown by everyone at the club, especially chairmen David Gold, David Sullivan, Jill Moore, Julie O’Leary, and Charley Harding, for making it a magical memorable day…

Here are some photos from our adventure…

Presenting Man of the Match award to Mark Noble

Pitchside with David Gold and nephew Michael

Sitting in Big Sam’s hot seat in the dug-out (with Patricia)

Cross arms ‘Irons’ pose with David Gold and David Sullivan (and Brother Ian)